


Chat-Ra and the Princesses of Power

by Xanoka



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Adrien is She-Ra, Adrien is an awkward turtle, Crack, Crossover, F/M, First Meetings, Gen, Marinette is Glimmer, Miraculous Ladybug Secret Santa 2018, Pre-Relationship, She-Ra and the Princesses of Power fusion, The Evil Horde does not teach people skills, general silliness, or Chat-Ra if you will, the sword of protection
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-30
Updated: 2018-12-30
Packaged: 2019-09-30 06:24:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,172
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17218640
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Xanoka/pseuds/Xanoka
Summary: Adrien is a magical princess! The She-Ra and the Princesses of Power AU I didn't know I needed.For the Miraculous Ladybug Secret Santa 2018!





	Chat-Ra and the Princesses of Power

**Author's Note:**

  * For [CrypticCravings (Sekaiinokoi)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sekaiinokoi/gifts).



> This is a Secret Santa gift for @CrypticCravings (Sekaiinokoi). I noticed you seem to like She-Ra, so I hope this AU appeals to you. I've only seen a few episodes, tbh, but hopefully it's OK! Anyway, merry Christmas!

It was all Plagg’s fault.

Of course it was! Adrien was completely blameless. Completely.

But they’d seen the hovercraft sitting innocently in the landing dock, and there was no one around…

(“Come on, Adrien! Don’t you want to get out and see the world? It’ll be fun! No one will even notice we’re gone!”)

Famous. Last. Words.

Now he was stuck in a freaky, freaky forest, miles away from the Horde, and Plagg was nowhere to be found.

And did he mention the wood was creepy? Because it was. All eerie glowy light emanating from big, bulbous flowers, and huge leaves that blocked out the sun. Say what you like about The Horde HQ, but at least it knew the benefit of proper lighting.

But Adrien was a Horde soldier, so he squared his shoulders and strode forward bravely through the semidarkness. And immediately got a face full of something drippy and sticky.

“EWWW!”

It was wet and filled his mouth instantly. So the manly cry had definitely been a mistake. He scrabbled desperately to scrape it off his tongue and so almost missed the snicker in the tree above him. Luckily, Adrien was a _top_ soldier. He heard it and spun round to find the source.

“‘Oose ‘ere’?” he shouted as commandingly as possible into the gloom. Nobody answered, but he continued to stare suspiciously into the treetops. It could be a _princess_. They were famously sneaky and _evil_. Shadow Weaver said so, and she’d been fighting them for _years_.

He spat out as much of the _stuff_ as he could and tried again.

“I mean it! Show yourself!”

“That would be more impressive if your mouth wasn’t full of _spider web_.”

Adrien spun round again and ended up overbalancing. Only his sword thrust down swiftly into the dirt saved him from going down onto his knees, or worse, his ass.

It did mean he finished up down on one knee, like a storybook hero awaiting knighthood. That fanciful idea flitted through his head and was the _only_ excuse for what happened next.

“My, my,” the mystery voice called down. “How gallant. Have I found myself a knight?”

“Anything for you, my lady,” he replied reflexively, then immediately kicked himself, because this was the _enemy._ Whoever she was might even be a _princess_.

He heard laughter again, and finally spotted movement in the shadowy arms of a huge beech. There was a small stone by his hand. Before he could think too hard about it, he scooped it up and flung it in that direction, and was immediately rewarded by a muffled curse followed by the thud of a body hitting the ground.

“AHA!” he yelled, sprinting over as fast as possible to hold his sword to his fallen adversary’s throat. “Who are you, peasant?” he demanded, rather impressively, in his own opinion.

His prisoner scoffed, batting the tip of his sword away with the back of her hand.

“Peasant! Who do you think you are, Horde soldier? I’m a _princess_!”

A princess! Dread trickled down his spine, but he forced his face to be impassive. He couldn’t show fear, or give her any leverage at all. Princesses were _devious_. Everyone knew that. Some said they could _smell_ fear. That couldn’t be true, though, right?

He began to sweat.

“Princess?” he mocked as confidently as he could. “I don’t believe you.”

“What! Of course I am. Why would I lie?”

“Princesses are eight feet tall. Everyone knows that. And they have horns! And sorcerous powers.”

“Who on earth have _you_ been talking to? Horns! Though I suppose _one_ might. Maybe. I haven’t met them all. But _all_ princesses? Honestly!”

“Princesses are evil! And scaly! Hideous! You can’t be a princess.”

“I don’t know whether I should be offended or flattered.”

“Definitely flattered,” his traitorous mouth replied, without permission from his brain.

She flushed, pink spreading across otherwise pale skin. It was like a flag, waving a semaphore message in his face. < _Pretty Girl Pretty Girl. > _

He could feel his face turning red in turn and Adrien scowled. This was _not_ how a Horde interrogation went. In an attempt to wrest back control, he tapped the side of her shoulder gently with the tip of his sword.

“Are you alone, villain? Where are the others?”

“Villain? Others? What are you _talking_ about?”

“The other princesses, of course. You can’t expect me to believe you’re travelling alone.”

“You can and you should.”

“Lies! Everyone knows princesses always lie.”

“Again, who have you been _talking_ to?”

“It’s common knowledge.”

“Among who? The Evil Horde?”

The princess snorted again. Adrien was abruptly reminded of the rumour that princesses could turn into massive snorting beasts that ran like the wind and breathed _fire_. Then his brain caught up with what she’d just said.

“Wait. _Evil_ Horde? What the hell does that mean? Who calls us that?”

“Uh, _everyone_.”

“This is one of your princess lies, isn’t it?”

“Princess lies! What does _that_ mean?”

“Princesses _always_ lie.”

“What propaganda is this? The _Horde_ always lies.”

“We do not!”

“Well, you would say that, wouldn’t you?”

Adrien was opening his mouth to reply when he was interrupted by an arrow whistling past and embedding itself in the ground an inch from his foot.

“Stalling!” He should have known! _Devious_ princess.

But she was already lashing out with her foot, catching him on the shin and sending him stumbling back and raising her hands in a strange gesture.

Princess sorcery!

He wasn’t wrong. Something was abruptly squeezing him, ropes of magic binding his arms to his sides, forcing him to drop his sword. Dammit.

Worse, he wobbled and overbalanced, crashing into the leaf littered ground. How humiliating! What would Shadow Weaver think if she could see him now!

“Thanks, Nino!” The princess was saying, and Adrien craned his neck to see a dark skinned bespectacled boy peer down from the trees. Their eyes met and the boy grinned and waved - somewhat insensitively, since Adrien couldn’t exactly wave _back_ \- before shouldering his quiverful of arrows and bow and jumping down to join them.

“No problem. Are you OK, Marinette? Did he hurt you?”

The princess - _Marinette_ \- tisked, sounding annoyed.

“Of course he didn’t, I doubt this one even _could_.”

“Well, now I’m just offended. I’ll have you know I’m one of the Horde’s _top_ recruits. I’m _deadly._ ”

“You’re something all right.”  

Nino chuckled, which Adrien did _not_ appreciate. He even dared to prod Adrien with his foot. The nerve!

“What should we do with him, then?” he asked, much too sunnily. “Knock him on the head and leave him for the direwolves?”

“That would be _murder_ , Nino. No, I think we should take him back to the palace. Mother can question him - ”

“I’ll never talk!”

“- Maybe he has some information about the Horde,” Marinette finished, ignoring Adrien entirely.

Adrien had some choice words to say about _that_ , and got as far as opening his mouth before a bone chilling growl echoed through the clearing.

“What was that?” Marinette said. Well, whispered. Adrien sympathised. He had the sudden urge to curl up very small and hide himself, one that grew exponentially at the sound of a second rumbling snarl.

Instead he attempted to roll over to get a better look, but only succeeded in landing face down in leaf mush. Ugh, the Mysterious Forest of Mystery, or whatever it was, _sucked_.

“Marinette, come on,” Nino was muttering urgently, gripping her elbow. He had somehow produced something like a grappling hook from somewhere, and Adrien suddenly had a vision of the pair of the pair of them swinging away and leaving him to his fate.

“Wait!” he hissed (after spitting out leaf mulch _again_ ). “Wait! Untie me first! Don’t just leave me here!”

Marinette had the grace to look embarrassed and did the hand gesture again, liberating Adrien from his temporary prison. He wasted no time in scrambling to his feet and casting around for his sword. Which was nowhere to be seen. Damn princess must have magicked it away, or something.

Before he could panic too much the trees across the clearing creaked ominously then finally snapped as something huge blundered into view.

“What is _that?_ ” The voice was shrill and horrified, and it took Adrien a second to realise it was his.

“A direwolf,” Marinette muttered grimly.

“A _massive_ one,” Nino added. “Did it _eat_ another one. Jeez. Anyway, stand back!” He raised his bow, and Adrien felt his heart lift as he let loose three arrows in swift succession. This guy could shoot! Maybe he could persuade him to defect and join his squad back at the Horde…

His musings were cut tragically short as all three arrows bounced harmlessly off the monster’s thick hide. Marinette raised her hands and _did_ something and a purple cloud immediately surrounded the creature’s head.

“Yeah, go Marinette!” Nino cheered.

The wolf shook its massive head and snorted, blowing away the haze like it was nothing.

Well, then.

“Run!” They all shouted simultaneously, and Adrien was running, diving for the narrow space between the trees. Surely it wouldn’t be able to follow them there?

He was peripherally aware of Marinette and Nino scattering too, and he took a second to mentally congratulate the three of them for having the foresight to separate. It was Horde battlefield tactics 101. Better chance for at least two of them to escape with their lives, after all.

Until he heard a sudden shout and couldn’t stop himself from whirling around. He registered three things immediately.

Nino was down. Marinette was screaming his name, magic gathering in her hands, but she wasn’t going to reach him in time. The monster wolf was already on Nino, it’s maw gaping open, like it was about to bite his head off.

Adrien didn’t think.

“Hey!” he yelled. There was a loose branch on the ground and he picked it up and threw it.

Of course, it bounced uselessly off the wolf’s muzzle. But its head swung round, forgetting Nino, and its eyes found Adrien in seconds. Which was good, surely? Objective achieved. Except he had a hard time remembering that when it growled, and every prey instinct in him shrieked like a kettle, insisting that he either try and blend into the forest floor or run like the clappers. He compromised by freezing, then immediately regretted it as the wolf took one menacing step towards him.

Adrien bolted. Crashing through the Whispering Woods, or whatever the hell, unarmed, without so much as a _knife_ , some distant part of his brain noted that this was _not_ his finest hour. Shadow Weaver would be _so_ disappointed.

Her opinion of him would have plummeted even further had she witnessed him burst through a bush and teeter on the edge of a small cliff, arms windmilling uselessly before gravity dragged him inevitably downwards.

And he was so _graceful_ in training, so skilled, so lethal, he reflected ruefully as he rolled down the sharp slope, bouncing jarringly off tree roots and rocks, miraculously avoiding a head injury on the way down.

When the world finally stopped spinning he groaned manfully. He was on his back, staring up at the sky far away, above the trees. There was something digging into his back and everything ached, but he was alive! And maybe the wolf wouldn’t be able to get to him down -

The wolf growled again as it slid down the slope in a much more elegant controlled slide than Adrien had managed.

Suddenly, the aches were gone and Adrien was pushing himself to his feet, forcing himself into a clumsy staggering run, as far from the wolf as he could go. Which, it turned out, was not very far.

He was in some kind of hollow, like a crater, the walls of which were too tall and smooth for him to climb easily. There were some vines hanging down, like roots, but when he tugged on one it disintegrated in his hand, dead and useless.

The wolf growled again behind him. It might have been Adrien’s imagination, but it sounded satisfied, _smug_ , like it knew it had chased its prey to ground.

Still, Adrien was a _Horde_ soldier. He wasn’t going to give up without a fight. He scanned the hollow again, looking for a weapon. Something glinted in the dim light and Adrien was moving before his brain fully registered it. As he got closer he saw it was a _sword_ , partially obscured by vegetation and surprisingly bright in the gloom.

Like a dream, he saw his hand reach out, fingers wrapping around the handle, which warmed in his hand, like a welcome. Then the warmth was growing everywhere, filling him with light. And not metaphorical light, either. He was distantly aware of it filling the crater from a source he couldn’t see. Looking down, he realised his clothes were different, having somehow morphed into some kind of skin tight black suit, complete with a flowing red cape and _smart_ boots, in the last few seconds. More importantly, something soft and blond was licking his neck and the side of his face, and it took him a second to realise it was his _hair_ , suddenly streaming behind him, long and lustrous. And there was something on his head and face, solid and oddly reassuring.

He would have taken more time to be surprised, except the wolf chose that moment to snarl again. It had hesitated during the sudden light show and wardrobe change, but whatever rabid madness was driving it finally reasserted itself as it stalked forward.

Adrien raised the sword reflexively (light and perfectly balanced in his hand) and stepped forward to meet it.

He’d remember later that the fear was gone. The strange, familiar sword swung through the air like the platonic ideal of a sword. All other swords were imposters, just trying to be a tenth of this sword’s perfection.

So when the wolf lunged for Adrien’s throat, his arm came up without conscious thought, batting it away, like a fly. It lay on the ground, momentarily stunned, then snarled and charged again.

This time he got it on the shoulder, slicing through the thick hide like it was warm butter. The wolf yowled and _clanked_.

“Wait a minute. You’re a mechanical!”

And suddenly he was feeling a lot less conflicted about hurting a living thing. Just two short thrusts and the wolf was hamstrung, sprawled on the forest floor, glaring up at him balefully.  Despite everything, he was still surprised at how easily the sword cut through the metal, separating its head from its shoulders. It jerked once, legs kicking out reflexively, then subsided with a groan of steel.

“Whoah!” Adrien turned in time to see Nino swinging down the side of the crater. “That was amazing!”

“How did you do that?” Marinette added, joining him silently out of nowhere. Her face was impassive, unlike Nino, who was practically vibrating.

“Marinette! Are you kidding? Look at him! He’s obviously the legendary Princess Chat-Ra!”

Adrien flinched, and the sword slipped from his hand. The warm glow filling him abruptly dimmed, and with it, the clearing, leaving the world a much darker place.

Squinting in the semi-darkness, he could make out Nino, looking gobsmacked, and Marinette, looking unchanged. So she’d probably seen him, or recognised him, long hair or not. Still, priorities.

“Princess? I’m a man!” _Not_ a boy, whatever Shadow Weaver said.

“Princess is a gender neutral term,” Marinette replied, smirking. Perhaps princesses _could_ read minds, after all, she looked far too knowing.

“Whoah,” Nino said again. “You’re that Horde soldier from before!”

“Er - yes?”

“Whoah! How did you do that, dude?”

Interpreting the unfamiliar term as a token of camaraderie, Adrien felt emboldened to admit his ignorance and a rundown of events since they’d all scattered.

“I just picked up the sword,” he concluded. “Then there was light and stuff, and the wolf was there, and a minute later you were here too.”

“But Chat-Ra - ”

“Who?”

Nino stared at him, eyes abruptly looking twice their usual size. “Marinette,” he eventually whispered. “Chat-Ra _doesn’t know about Chat-Ra._ ”

“You should come to the palace with us,” Marinette said firmly, in a tone that strongly recommended immediate compliance. “Mother will want to talk to you.”

Adrien recoiled.

“I can’t go anywhere with you! I have to go back to the Horde!”

“No way!”

But Marinette remained inscrutable. She was quiet for a long moment, then nodded seriously.

“OK,” she conceded. “But don’t you want to know more about what happened?”

“Nothing happened!”

Marinette fixed him with a deadpan look. “You just grew about two feet, and your hair grew about four. You were _glowing_. You just took down a Horde war machine without breaking a sweat. One we couldn’t, and I’m a Princess of Power, and Nino’s the best archer in Etheria!”

“Aww, thanks, Marinette.”

“The point is, my mother can help you. She can _explain._ ”

And that _was_ tempting. But - but _home_ . Plagg. _Loyalty._

“I _can’t!_ I have to go back to the Horde.”

Marinette nodded again, like she’d been expecting it.

“Then you should go. We’re not your enemy, soldier. Come back when you’re ready and we’ll help you.”

“Uh, Adrien.”

“What?”

“My name. It’s Adrien.”

“Oh,” she flushed again and finally smiled. This time there were dimples. Adrien’s heart absolutely did not skip a beat. “It’s nice to meet you, Adrien. I’m Marinette, and that’s Nino.”

“Yo!”

“I know. I heard you earlier.” Adrien immediately kicked himself. Surely that wasn’t a normal thing to say to people? “It’s nice to meet you too!” He ploughed on.

“Likewise, dude!” Nino replied cheerfully, saving Adrien from his embarrassment. “But, seriously, Marinette, what are we going to do about the machine?”

“Did you say it was Horde?” Adrien stared at the wolf monster doubtfully. “The Horde wouldn’t make something like this.”

Marinette and Nino exchanged looks, then Marinette cleared her throat.

“I saw a bear like this last month, they absolutely would.” She flipped over one of its enormous paws for emphasis, as if she was expecting to find THE HORDE™ stamped there.

“I don’t believe you,” Adrien whispered, surprised and a little ashamed of how _uncertain_ he sounded. Galvanised, he squared his shoulders.

“I’ve got to go,” he announced, more firmly, then turned on his heel and marched away.

Unfortunately, he still had to find a way _out_ of the hollow. The back of his neck burned with embarrassment and his audience’s interest as he carefully tested various roots and footholds (safety first!) before finally hauling himself out.

By the time he was standing on the edge of the crater, scratched and studded with gorse briars, but victorious, Nino and Marinette were still watching him, mostly straight faced. His own face burned, but _still._ It would be rude to just _leave_.

“Goodbye!” he announced, then felt foolish and hurried away.

It was only much later, when he finally stumbled out of the treeline, that he realised that he’d completely forgotten about the sword.

 


End file.
